Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-03-16
A GOOD STORY ON INGERSOLL.

II served in Col. Bob Ingersoll's COM
mand," said veteran of the Ochiltree club
at the Panorama of Bull Run this morning,
land whenever | want to have good
laugh recall to my mind the incidents
connected with his capture in Tennessee.
have seen somewhere cruel paragraph to
the effect that the Colonel surrendered very
willingly, and / want to brand that false
hood for just what it is. A braver man l
never saw in five years OF service. We
were scattered over good deal of territory
surrounding village at the time the Col
onel was taken in and cared for by the Con-
federates. We were in skirmish at the
time, and the Colonel was trying toget to
demoralzed wing of his command. AS he
was passing through series of cattle pens
he was surrounded by lot of Confederates
and commanded to surrender, but he didn't
do it worth cent. He kept right on, rum
ming at breakneck speed. He was not so
stout then as now, and as a pedestrian ne
was no SLOUGH. The bullets were flying
about him as thick as hail. If he could get
to another branch of his command he felt
that he could rally the boys and win the
fight. A number of his men saw that he
was in imminent peril, and that if he didn't
surrender he would be killed, and they yell
ed at him at the top of their voices to stop
and surrender. He needed, but could see
that he did so with regret and disgust
Here is where the humOr began. When
the Colonel stopped he threw up his hands
and screamed out: Stop firing! I'll ac-
knowledge your - old Confederacy J"
The Colonel was taken over to O store for
safe keeping, and proved to be a great Gu
riosity. People flocked around him, listen.
that they were having more fun than they
ever had before in all their lives. That
night the Colonel stood around the store till
goodly number of the Confederates came
in, and he began to treat and tell yarns.
Finally the crowd overfowed the place and
blocked up the entrance to it. Then the
Colonel went outside. The boys were all
feeling we'll under the potence of words and
drinks, and every man, woman and child
within the sound of his voice loved him.
Directly the Colonel was asked to make a
speech: This was what he was working
for and minute later he was on a box and
addressing the crowd,and it was right
rough crowd, too. No lecture that great Or
ator ever delivered contained so much that
was good in it. 1t fairly bubbled over with
good will and the milk of human kindness.
He pictured how regretfully the North took
up arms against the South, reminding his
hearers that they had fired the first shot in
their assault upon Fort Sumter. Then ne
went off on slavery, placing the poor whites
before him in the place of the unfortunate
blacks, a people with souls and all the in
stincts of the whites, but downtrodden for no
other reason than that they were black:
He pictured the scene when those who had
held human souls in bondage were called
before the judgment throne to answer for
deeds done in the flesh. 1t was touching
appeal and brought out streams of tears
and storms of applause from the very men
who had but few hours before shot at and
captured him. At the moment when the
most pathetic passages in his speech were
being delivered Gen. Forrest, the Confed.
crate cavalryman whose command had
made the capture, rushed into the crowd
all aglow with excitement, but not anger,
and exclaimed: Here, Ingersoll, stop that
speech and I'll exchange you for gov,
ernment mule.' A short time afterWard
Col. Ingersoll was paroled. He was demor.-
alizng the whole of the command and
would have had it revolving against its
commander had he been allowed to 60 on
for two or three days as he had on the first
dav."-Ne,U York Sun.